Lips of an Angel

Jedi Goat

Disclaimer: I don't own Ouran High School Host Club.

Warnings: Slash and twincest. Mostly, I blame Hikaru's dirty mind.

Author's Note: This is my first time writing OHSHC fanfic, and a new pairing too! ...Okay, fine, maybe I'm the only one excited about it. :P This is for the 7snogs community challenge on LJ; I've already finished and uploaded all of my entries there, if you're interested in reading them. :)

It was late: far later than I should have been out.

I closed the door behind me, freezing in place when it clicked loudly in the dead silence. For a moment I listened to nothing but the frantic rasp of my own breathing, squinting into the impenetrable darkness. Then, shoulders loosening from the unconscious tension, I blew out a long breath and shuffled forward. I didn't need light to find my way to our bed, but I slowed my footsteps anyway, cautious not to let a single sound slip.

If Kaoru knew I was just getting back now, I was in for it. In my defence – the words I had formulated on the long limo ride home lingered at the back of my mind – it wasn't really my fault; neither Haruhi nor I had expected our lab report to take so long to finish. Kaoru wasn't in Advanced Chemistry; he wouldn't understand the precision demanded by our professor in what were certainly college-level computations.

Despite my scrambling for an excuse, luck saved me from any such need. I sighed and silently thanked the fact that my brother was by all appearances already asleep, huddled on the far right side of the mattress. That surprised me a little, I mused as I turned away, wrestling free of my jacket and shirt. Any other night Kaoru would be waiting in the ghostly glow of the lamp, some new thick volume in his lap, glancing up with the slightest frown when I reappeared.

It was rather an annoyance – if ever I could call my twin an annoyance – the insistent habit he had developed as of late. Who did he think he was, anyway – my mother? It wasn't as if his wakeful patience would send me back home any sooner.

The shirt hit the floor a few feet away with a muffled whump. Turning so that my knees brushed up against the mattress, I reached for the fold in the covers and gently tugged the blankets from my brother's death grip. He didn't stir; he didn't even turn over from where he lay, back obstinately exposed. A tuft of his hair gleamed silver in the shaft of moonlight filtering through the curtains. After a bated moment, I remembered to breathe again and shuffled into my usual space, trying not to jar the mattress lest I disturb my sleeping brother.

And yet...

The thought gave me pause. And yet, no matter the late hour or my brother's silently disapproving countenance, the spell was always short-lived. He never failed, before we each turned over to sleep, to quietly utter oyasumi, ani-chan.

I shook my head and started to ease down, wondering why the tradition had been broken and why it bothered me so much.

Kaoru stirred. He rolled onto his back, one hand flopping onto the pillow I had been surreptitiously adjusting, and his lips parted in a single murmured word: "Hika..."

Shit.

I froze, half under the blankets, half up on my knees, staring sharply at his dazed expression as I waited for the impending accusations to fall. But none was forthcoming: a moment's hesitation and a restrained closer look revealed, in fact, that my twin was still sleeping.

The baka was only dreaming.

I let out a gusty breath, slumping down on my side and carefully avoiding his prone arm. The close call had me lightheaded and strangely giddy: I could hardly believe I'd slipped past him. Any ruse of mine could fool our parents, but Kaoru was impossible to trick. Even the one time Tamaki had decided the club should play 'Secret Santa' (some sort of Western tradition, he claimed), Kaoru had guessed I had his name without a second thought. He knew me too well.

I exhaled. The blissful notion of sleep toyed at my mind, but a sudden thought struck me and my eyes snapped open again.

What was Kaoru dreaming about me, anyway?

Like I said, there were no secrets between us.

I shifted up on my right elbow to regard him suspiciously. Kaoru sprawled exactly where I'd left him, the crack of moonlight now falling across his face. In its milky light, his skin glowed smooth and pale, like fragile porcelain on a doll.

Wait, where did that come from? I shook my head, dazed with sleep and hardly thinking coherently. Leave the stupid similes to my language-obsessed brother.

Still, I couldn't help but wonder – just a little – if I looked like that when I slept.

Probably not, I decided. Between the two of us, Kaoru was far more innocent; the dramatized plays we staged during the club hours weren't entirely invented, after all. That wasn't to say he couldn't be as devious as me if he wanted, it was just...

Fuck, what did I know? It bordered on one in the morning and my mind had clearly dipped into some strange delusion.

Kaoru's lips moved slightly and it took me a moment to realize he was speaking again, more faintly than before. Thoughtlessly I leaned forward, my hands braced against the mattress, turning my head just enough not to disturb his sleeping face with my hot breath.

Tell me your secrets, little brother...

Kaoru mumbled to himself and his head twitched faintly, agitatedly, to the side. I caught my name again but nothing else. In all likelihood, I could badger him about it in the morning, teasing him until he spilled the details of the dream. But then again, it would be too easy for him to lie to me or to have sincerely forgotten by that point. There would be no fun in that course of action, whether it was more prudent or not.

Well, how could I help it? Twins weren't supposed to have secrets. And damn if I wasn't honestly curious.

I was hardly aware that I now partially crouched over him, intent on the slightest motion of his lips. In aggravating turn, his mutterings faded until they were practically inaudible, even as I was only inches away. I exhaled softly, resigned to that more cautious course, and nearly withdrew when Kaoru stirred slightly. I didn't think he'd caught me but froze nonetheless, watching the ripple of his lashes like a hawk until he was still and serene once more. Even then, I didn't move: why had I never noticed how long his eyelashes were, in all the times our Act had brought us this close together?

Disgruntled, I tore my gaze away. We had identical features, anyway – why should it have bothered me all of a sudden? – It had to be a trick of the light.

But that meant it was also only a trick of the light that, up close, made his lips appear so soft.

Wha...?

The brush of his breath on my face forced me to jolt suddenly out of my stupor; I reeled back, hardly breathing out of the fear that my pounding heartbeat would wake him. In rapid succession heat and chill rushed beneath my skin as I stared dumbly at Kaoru's sleeping form.

Where the hell ... did that come from?

My rationale struggled to catch up with my racing pulse. No, I objected, we were identical: same lips as everything else. In justification, I ran my tongue experimentally over my lower lip: rough and dry, and still cold from my foray outside.

Kaoru's should have been the same, though a little warmer, maybe even softer ... he was, after all, the innocent one. I deemed it fit, even if it didn't make perfect logical sense.

And yet, there was only one way to verify whether it was solely an illusion, a delusion of my sadistic sleep-deprived mind.

I leaned across him, bracing my weight on shaking palms to either side. I wet my lips and chanced a last, wild glance up at his closed lids. I didn't want to think of how I'd explain myself if Kaoru woke up now.

But I had to be certain.

I had to know if we were identical in this way, like all others.

I shut my eyes to block out my hesitation and closed the last desperate inch of distance between us. I intended nothing more than quick qualification for my hypothesis – but kissing Kaoru was nothing like I could have ever expected.

We were seamlessly identical, and yet he was so different from me in every way. His lips opposed mine, warm and supple, and it took far more effort than it should have to pull myself back again. I hung over him, my breath coming in quickening gasps as heat washed over me again.

Suddenly my heart and my imagination plunged into hazy, adrenaline-fuelled overdrive: I wanted his unique lips, I wanted them to wreak their havoc all over my body; and beneath me in my mind, he writhed and begged, his adorable face streaked with perspiration.

Fuck.

I closed my eyes and kneaded my knuckles against my brow, breathing haggard. My thoughts shamed me with how quickly they spun away from our mutually accepted brotherly love, and if I didn't find a way to deter the nosedive soon, waking up Kaoru would be the least of my worries.

Why did he have to be so different?

And why – I peered down at his innocent expression again through my fingers, bitterness closing at the back of my throat – did that have to be so damn alluring?

Baka Kaoru. Baka Kaoru kept these secrets from me. Baka Kaoru had to look sexy while he was sleeping.

Wait – no!

I huffed out a long breath and retreated to my side of the bed, turning over so that I didn't have to gaze upon his innocent facade. My heart was still thundering a mile a minute, but I had cut off my thoughts; I would be satisfied in blaming him for now. A momentary morbid curiosity had taken over because of his naivety, that was all. Maybe someday, when this was miles behind us, I'd tell Kaoru and we could laugh about it.

Behind me, the mattress shifted. With one arm still thrown across my face, I hastily closed my eyes, perfecting an illusion of sleep.

"Hika?" Kaoru mumbled, his hand brushing my shoulder.

I made a noise of acknowledgement in my throat. I didn't turn over and I didn't imagine how he looked as he said it, damn it, with his mussed hair half flopping in his sleep-laden eyes.

"...I had a really strange dream."

I echoed him with another vague sound of recognition. Perhaps in light of this forced indifference, Kaoru chose not to press further, for which in between the heat beating at my face and my thundering heart I was glad. When he quieted and curled closer to me, however, I reached for his hand under the covers.

I ran my thumb over the smooth skin of his palm and whispered, "...Me, too, Kaoru."

I didn't expect him to answer and merely closed my eyes, comforted, at least, by his warmth at my back. Distantly, I mused that it might be worth looking in to revising our old Act sometime.

For further research purposes, nothing more. Some secrets could remain between us.

Besides, there were surely a number of our fans who'd faint at the mere suggestion of us kissing.

I smirked into my pillow.

Fin.

Please review! Concrit would be greatly appreciated. ^^